


Knock Knock

by demishock, eveshka



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Jokes, Kid Fic, terrible puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 14:12:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10024253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demishock/pseuds/demishock, https://archiveofourown.org/users/eveshka/pseuds/eveshka
Summary: In which Ignis teaches Noctis how to tell jokes, and Noctis catches on surprisingly quickly.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eveshka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eveshka/gifts), [demishock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/demishock/gifts).



> Wrote a thing at the behest of eveshka, who is bound and determined to get me writing again. The prompt was “6 year old Noct telling 8 year old Ignis the worst ever knock-knock jokes.”

“Ignis, what’s a ‘knock-knock’ joke?”

Ignis looked up from the book he’d been trying to read to see Noctis standing in the doorway.

“I’m sorry?”

Noctis huffed out a breath and entered the room proper, plopping himself down on the floor across from him.

“Someone at school today asked me to tell a ‘knock-knock’ joke but I don’t know what that is.”

“Did you ask them?”

Noctis scrunched up his nose.

“I’m asking you.”

Ignis considered the question for a moment, trying to decide how best to explain.

“It’s a type of joke where you pretend that you’re knocking at someone’s door. The person you’re telling the joke to asks you who’s there, and depending on how you answer, that determines the punchline.”

Ignis hadn’t thought Noctis’s nose could get any more scrunchy, but he’d been wrong.

“I don’t get it.”

“I’ll give you an example.”

“Okay.” Noctis sat up straight, giving Ignis his full attention.

Ignis adjusted his glasses, cleared his throat, and said, “Knock knock.”

“…Who’s there…?”

“Spell.”

Noctis waited in silence. When Ignis didn’t continue, he tilted his head at him, bewildered.

“Apologies. You’re supposed to repeat the word back to me with ‘who’ after it,” Ignis prompted.

“Oh.”

“I’ll begin again. Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Spell.”

“Spell who?”

“W-H-O.”

The pair sat in silence for several seconds, Noctis blinking at Ignis uncomprehendingly. Then he got it.

“…OH.”

“W-H-‘oh,’” Ignis corrected, “but yes.”

Noctis bounced up and down.

“Do another one!”

“Very well. Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” Noctis asked with a great deal more enthusiasm.

“Boo.”

“Boo who?!”

“No need to cry; it’s merely a joke.”

Noctis’s eyes widened, then he snickered into his hands. After he’d sufficiently recovered, Noctis said, “Okay… I wanna try one. Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” Ignis replied indulgently.

There was a pause as Noctis struggled to come up with something, and then, “Who.”

“Who who?”

“Silly; you let an owl inside!”

Ignis smiled, which made Noctis smile, too.

“I’ve got another one – are you ready?” Noctis asked.

“Certainly.”

“Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Knock.”

“Knock who?”

“Knock-tis!”

Ignis gave a startled little laugh at that, and Noctis’s eyes went wide.

“Was that good?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes, Noct; that was very good.”


	2. Who's There?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the jokes become something deeper to both children.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Demishock, who did such a marvelous job with the prompt I gave her, it seemed only fair to return gift myself. <3

Every child has a joke that they cling to, a joke that gets old and worn when used so many times the response becomes habit. It’s a joke that parents tolerate, friends wish would be forgotten or replaced, and strangers never understand.

Noctis was no different. As a child, he’d concocted what Ignis had thought was the most appropriate and yet singularly worst knock-knock joke he’d ever heard. 

_ “Knock  knock .” _

_ “Who’s there?” _

_ “Knock.” _

_ “Knock who?” _

_ “Knock-tis!” _

For months, the  six-year-old Prince had repeated the joke punctuated with giggles to everyone he could. Servants, staff,  Kingsglaive alike were all treated to it, and they all tolerated it well. Even Regis laughed when Noctis repeated it to him every night at dinner. After all, one had to admit that anything that made the child giggle made him all the more endearing.

And then came the  marilith attack, and Noctis stopped telling jokes.

 

It was a month after Noctis had awoken and returned from Tenebrae, and Ignis was running out of things to make the younger boy smile. Never had there been an  eleven-year-old so dutifully intent in his efforts. He learned to bake, to concoct wild and fanciful stories, to create lyric verse of poetry. (Truly, it was awful, but Ignis  tried .)

And yet, it was all to no avail. The Prince was a shadow of his former self, a living ghost drifting through the days and barely sleeping through the nigh ts. Eventually, in a half-dead stupor for exhaustion, the older boy found himself seated on a couch, the younger’s head in his lap. Why it occurred to him to knock his knuckles on the dark-haired head, he will never know, but he did.

*knock-knock*

Silence.

*knock-knock*

Silence.

*knock-knock* This time, Ignis said the words. “Knock, knock.”

Silence.

*knock-knock* “Knock, knock.”

Silence.

This repeated for quite a while until, irritable, Noctis finally,  finally replied. “Who’s there?”

Ignis couldn’t help but smile. “Knock.”

“Knock who?” The Prince’s voice was quiet.

“Knock you upside the head if you don’t know, Knock-tis.”

There was silence. And then, a snort. When Ignis knocked on his head again, it turned into a hiccup, which then became something similar to the old giggle. 

From then on, Ignis only had to knock twice on any surface (though it was best when he knocked on top of Noctis’ head) to make the boy give him a quick smile. It became their thing through the years . Two knocks and a smile.

When they’d headed out from Insomnia, Ignis had set the joke aside, knowing the time for child’s play was over, and the man’s work begun. No-one expected the trip to have taken the turn it did, and the joke was almost forgotten.

 

But there, next to the campfire, it came back to Ignis, and though he wouldn’t see the smile, he raised his hand and knocked twice against the cooler beside him.

 

And, after a moment, he heard it. Two knocks back.


End file.
